Enrichmond hires group to begin cemetery preservation plan
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The Enrichmond Foundation recently partnered with Howard Wellman Conservation, LLC to create a comprehensive preservation plan for Historic Evergreen and East End cemeteries. The historic cemeteries serve as the final resting place for thousands of individuals who faced segregation, discrimination, and racial violence while contributing in important ways to the city’s and nation’s social, political, intellectual, and religious life.
Wellman, who began his career conserving archaeological collections from excavations such as shipwrecks and the colonial time period, brings 21 years experience as a conservator to the project. Roughly half his work has been focused on historic cemetery preservation.
In November 2020, following COVID-19 delays, Wellman was able to travel to Richmond to survey Historic Evergreen and East End Cemeteries.
“Evergreen is phenomenal,” he said. “It is an amazing historical site, but it is also one that has to have a community behind it. Based on the work they’ve done so far, clearing some of the woods and opening it up a little bit, I can tell it is going to be an incredible place for city residents to visit.”
Upon completion, the plan will provide an assessment of the conditions of the thousands of monuments, headstones, and wrought ironwork to provide a step-by-step guide for proper rehabilitation of the monumental and ornate assets of the historic resting grounds. By the end of February, the plan is expected to be presented to the Historic Evergreen Cemetery Executive Planning and Review Team), a group of verified descendent family members, for review.
The announcement comes three months after the Friends of East End Cemetery, a volunteer group that had hosted regular cleanups of the cemetery, opted to cease its involvement at that site after it was unable to reach an agreement with Enrichmond. Each side faulted the other for the contentious end to the relationship.
For details about the cemeteries, visit enrichmond.org/evergreen-cemetery. To view videos in which Wellman outlines his process, visit dropbox.com/sh/ovf392ovd5iyfj1/AACCosGNfe5gahVlBVYr8l4Ea?dl=0.
